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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Mele-Kalikimaka Concussion

Concussions are not fun. It makes making sentences hard.
Or harder. Cause sometimes writer's block is tough but this takes writer's block to a whole new level.

I have tried googling the words: Crohns, Tapering Prednisone and Concussion together and found zilch.

So I don't know if I am the first to pioneer this forum or the people that have had this combination of problem, are so con-cussed and are resting from thinking or looking, that they are not on the google radar.

What I did find is that there are a lot of pro-football players bringing concussion, at least, to light.
A couple suicides. Yikes. Depression. Check. New rules and equipment. Got it.

The latest is the afro called The Gaurdian. But, mind you, this is for football players. Concussions can happen to those of us off the field. And who is going to go around in public with one of these on??

FYI I have sat and stared at the post, and others, for long periods of time. The whole experience is making me re0think what J does. I know I am maybe over-reacting.

I mean back in the day when I was a kid and seat belts were new, helmets unheard of and we probably got concussions on a weekly basis. They were called "Goose Eggs". And I don't know how many I accumulated but it was a sizeable amount.

Turning around in a single driveway on a banana seated bike with handle bars that rose above your head was a feat in itself. And was the reason you didn't learn to ride a bike until you were 12.

Okay, it was 7 or 8. Kids now days can learn at two because of the dwarf sized bikes and if you fall, all you have to do is put your foot our and it's a kick stand.

All I do know is that after sustaining this head injury I painfully walked my big purple bike home, tears streaming down my face, went inside and informed my mother who handed me an ice pack.
Just thinking about the pain as that tender egg swelled gives me shivers. This was also before I learned about Tylenol. Maybe she gave me one. I don't know.

So is it better to just let kids tough it out? Does it make us stronger or more stupid?

Now, I don't know if this is fate, but the book J chose from the Book Fair- I Survived.The Twin Towers is about a boy who suffers three concussions in two years and is told by his Physical Therapist he shouldn't play football any more.-- I know both J. and I were snuggled up in bed with our little lights twinkling while he read and once he came to that part he put the book down and we both looked at each other with the look like: "Is this a coincidence, or what?" THEN it went on
to tell about the boy, Lucas, at the PT office and looking at pictures of deceased pro players who had died due to concussions and donated their brains to be studied about the effects concussions.

He read those lines and sat straight up in bed, wide-eyed and looking at me.

I'm not going to die! This is my first concussion. Technically. And those guys get them over and over playing ball. It's their job to play ball and they get hit every day. So it's different.

However, My little wrapper reader, cautionary child is now informed, from another source other than mother, that it [concussion] is a serious thing.

To make the point hit home even further, the book is quite good, he is enjoying reading it and can relate to the young boy playing ball and can't hardly put it down because it is leading into the young man going into the city to talk to his firefighter uncle, Benny, about the Dr. visit and not being able to play his favorite sport, on 9.11. So the author has credibility in his mind.

So I had to do some balancing of risks that we take and point out how to be careful, blah, blah. That doing extreme sports without proper equipment is foolhardy. And maybe he ought to evaluate what he does in life. Yet there still aren't guarantees. Ya gotta live. It can happen crossing the street, or case in point; going down the stairs. And there are going to be a lot of stairs that he will encounter in his life time and find he'll need ot climb them.

Appeased, he continued to read and my mind drifted off to some other place- I thought about a young man at the HS who won an award for honors and some other stuff that was in band. He played the drums, got really good grades and won some Honorary award/scholarship.

I went to school with his smart mom and really admired how she and her husband raised such a smart kid. He'd suffered a really bad concussion, so he decided to go another route and that focus took him to school and playing the drums. Smart kid. But he does have another brother who has kept playing the sport.

Also my mind thought about a relative that had a freak accident and he didn't have on a helmet. It changed his life forever. And his families.

So when I see kids at the skate park or on the slopes or on motorcycles without protecting their head- I wanna grab them by the shoulders and shake them. Which would be the equivalent of Baby Shaken Syndrome to the brain- in order to get them to see the Risk.

Okay, this is showing the effects pretty much of the pred. and concussed. So I will sign off with something funny.

While taking my meds the other day J. picked up the Prednisone pill bottle and read the three warning labels out loud to me. One says to avoid those with diseases and infections because "your ability to fight off these infections is compromised."

J started laughing so hard. I asked what was so funny.

"How can you avoid yourself?" (I have a disease, infections at times.)

They next label has a picture of a loaf of bread- which is the universal sign in the Pharmceutical world to take the med with food. He thought it was a twinkie. Hostess has gone out of business.

"How are you going to take this if it wants you to take it with a twinkie?" more laughter.

One had a giant X over the sun. Meaning I needed to avoid sunlight or wear sunscreen if I was outside.

He went through all my medication warning labels and was laughing so hard at how I was supposed to keep it all straight. The one thing that wasn't tough to keep straight was "Breast feeding" or "Planning on Getting Pregnant". These warnings had him blushing.

Some of them were good reminders as to side effects, etc. And I realized I breeze past the fine print more than I should.

And it makes me realize that there are risks to taking meds that you hope to help your body out. I.E. Chemo., etc. You make allowances.

Okay, Readers, I've given you a good concussing tonight. And if there is somone out there who has suffered a concussion, has Crohns and is on prednisone- we need to talk.